Unexpected Occurrences
by SolidTux
Summary: Van is at the brink of death... ~warning: spoilers ahead~


All right, plenty of spoilers ahead. Be weary, though keep in mind I have not seen all the episodes myself.. Other than that, let me just remind you that this is NOT the original script, it is a FANFIC, therefore there will be differences. Ok? Good. Oh, and for those of you who know, let me tell you this once again: Things aren't always as they seem.

I don't own Escaflowne, its characters, nor any of that nifty stuff (though I wish I did), so please dun sue me or anything like that.

The words between the ~'s are thoughts.

**Unexpected Occurrences**  
by [SolidTux][1]

Thinking on my feet and ready to defend, I had already mounted and merged my guymelef, the Escaflowne, and drawn its sword. I had positioned the sword to my right, holding it out parallel to the ground, aimed at the Zaibach melef in front of me. He wasn't here alone, though. There was another Zaibach melef to my right and another to my left. I didn't think much of it, being that I've fought more than one melef at once plenty of times in the past.

Having had its aim already locked on to me, the melef in front of me fired its claws at a deadly speed. Easily, though, I started forward and swung my sword rapidly to the left scraping the claws away from me as I worked my way closer to the melef. ~Heh, two birds with one stone,~ I thought to myself in a sinister way as the melef's claws reached its partner to my left and destroyed it. All I needed to do now was readjust my sword at a slightly different angle and slash, so I did. The sword easily sliced through the melef in front of me in a downward arc, causing the mechanics inside it to short circuit and explode.

At this point, I was being very boastful about my skill, I temporarily forgot about the melef that was at my right. Seeing that as an open opportunity to strike me, it did--the pilot inside the melef shot the claws at my Escaflowne successfully, creating two rather deep scratches on its belly. Being that the Escaflowne was damaged and that I had merged with the Ispano guymelef, I couldn't do much but wince in pain from the damage, and for some reason which I still don't know, my Escaflowne had turned completely black in color--giving me less regard to the pain and more to the situation at hand.

Next, I quickly turned the Escaflowne around and held the sword to the side again, this time aiming the tip of the large sword at the guymelef that fired its claws at me, having lost, at this point, whatever human thoughts I held before the change in the Escaflowne. Instantly after, I started a mad dash at the melef, increasing in speed at an inhuman rate.

Knowing not why, though, I was able to hear the pilot's bloodcurdling screams of terror from inside the Escaflowne, somehow being music to my ears at this point as I swung my sword horizontally at it, slicing through the upper part of the shoulder, the neck, and out the other upper part of the shoulder, completely severing the guymelef's head from its mechanical body. Within few seconds after, the Zaibach guymelef exploded into ashes.

You might think that it was strange for me to ignore such pain the way I had, but somehow after my Escaflowne was scratched at the belly, it had turned completely black, all my humanity and pain left with the color. I then closed my eyes and fell back with my black Escaflowne. Though I had forgotten the pain of the deep scratches, I was, for some reason, very exhausted from the fight. Wearily, I then closed my eyes and slipped away from consciousness, faintly hearing Hitomi screaming...

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Opening my eyes, I awoke. I did not know where I was or even how I got there. I was a bit afraid seeing that everywhere around me was completely pitch-black, even though for some reason I was clearly able to see my hand in front of my face. I realized that I had somehow fallen into a dark reality, though I had no idea where in Gaea I was. I had no idea where in the universe I was, for that matter.

Unbelievingly, I blinked a couple of times at what suddenly appeared before me, it was a rather large pinkish glare shining in front of me. Continuing to stare, I saw that it swung back and forth, kind of like how Hitomi's pendant does. ~What....?~

Speeding up pace, my heart was beating at a faster rate when I saw Hitomi appear a few yards before me. A bit excited to see another human, I raced off towards her, yelling out her name as I made my way closer. Finally, when I reached her, she turned around and faced me with a smiling face. "Hitomi... what's going on? Where are we?" I inquired.

Hitomi's only response was, "I'm here for you, Van..." though I had no idea what she meant by it.

"Uhhh... what are you talking about?"

"...I'm here for you..."

I started to panic as Hitomi quickly started to fade away. I tried to grab a hold of her, but my hands went right through her as she faded away into the darkness. "HITOMI!!!" I yelled out her name helplessly. It was obviously of no use--she had already disappeared, leaving me alone in the darkness.

Looking around left and right, not much long after Hitomi disappeared, reality changed from black to a burning bright blue, then calmed down to a more "real" view. Looking around at this new reality I saw that I had somehow made my way to the Mystic Moon--the exact same place from when I first came. It didn't really startle me much at first, but then I saw a dragon over in front of some bushes, but that wasn't even the most disturbing part--I saw myself fighting the dragon! ~Where the hell am I?~ I stood there in shock, watching as another form of myself fought the dragon. ~What's happening?~

On realizing that the dragon had its tail up and was ready to strike at myself at any moment, I regained my grip of from shock and yelled out a warning but he couldn't hear me--that's when Hitomi came in and yelled the warning. I saw myself dodge the attack from above--my armor broke off, but besides that, I was still alive.

Very quickly, after seeing what I saw, reality became that bright, blue light once more. This time I was in former Fanelia, but it wasn't standing in glory, instead, it was burning to the ground. I looked around hesitantly, shaking in terror as I saw my once proud kingdom burn again before my very eyes. A quick turn to my side and I encountered the Escaflowne holding Hitomi in one hand, completely surrounded by Zaibach guymelefs.

Entranced by what was happening before my eyes, I fell into a state of shock once again. "I'm here for you..." It was Hitomi's voice that I heard, but it didn't come from her on the Escaflowne, instead, I heard it all around me. Immediately after, the blue reality took over and transported me to a Zaibach airship. This time I saw myself on a catwalk, receiving my sword back from my brother, Folken.

Yearning to come back to reality, I tried to yell a warning at myself again, though I knew it was of no use--I was forced to stand there and watch myself without being able to change anything. Just then Hitomi came running into the scene, "Vaaan! Behind you!" Myself in front of me then quickly turned around, drew the sword from its sheath and slashed in an upwards arc behind him, apparently cutting Dilandau, who was behind him and ready to kill, across the cheek.

Once more reality shifted to blue, this time I was transported to Asturia. By now I was starting to wonder if I was being showed these events for a particular reason. In this reality I saw myself and my brother before him talking to each other rather harshly. I was standing on a bridge; my brother had just stepped out from the bridge. Then, from the sky, I saw a single crima claw speeding to myself out of nowhere, but Hitomi came racing the tackled him away from the claw, just barely making it out alive from that encounter. Seeing this I felt my heart pound the same way as it did when it actually happened.

Unrelentingly, reality shifted wildly after that. I saw bright blue then a memory of myself and Hitomi, the girl from the Mystic Moon. Viewing these memories, I felt a window open up in my heart, as strange as it may sound. Through that window I felt many strange, yet pleasant feelings enter in and escape it. My mind wandered around in circles around the image of Hitomi. Suddenly, I began to realize what was going on to me...

Focusing more on my thoughts than the reality that was flashing before me, I thought aloud to myself, interrupting the blue reality, "Hitomi... what I felt..." Jumbled thoughts raced about my mind, most of which adding to my suspicions, then I continued thinking aloud, "So then it's true..."

Over and over again reality shifted blue and showed me more scenes of my life, but somehow my thoughts interrupted the shifting reality and made it turn back to its original dark form, that's when I saw Hitomi off in the distance running my way. ~Probably another illusion,~ I thought to myself. Disappointed, I turned around and started to head off in the opposite direction of Hitomi, not knowing where I was going and not knowing anything at all about what just happened or what will happen.

Reality changed once again on hearing Hitomi's voice, I didn't see the darkness, I didn't see blue; I saw nothing but her. I turned around to face her, seeing that she was still running towards me, "Van! Van! Let's go! Let's get out of here!" When I finally decided that this was no illusion, I reached my arm out longing to make contact with her as she made her way to me, but then she too disappeared...

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Every bit of my body was in pain when I slowly opened my eyes, discovering my true self lying on the floor bleeding badly at the stomach. Hitomi was on the floor clinging onto me. I then realized what had just happened to me. "So... then that was my life flashing before my eyes... heh... what a way to die..."

Very lightly, Hitomi gasped then gripped me tighter, realizing that I woke from my unconscious state. "No! You're not gonna die! We'll..." She paused a moment, probably because she realized that there was no hope left for me then continued, "...we'll have you healed!"

Easing my head up a bitI looked at Hitomi and saw her eyes sparkle gently with tears. "Hey... don't worry about me, Hitomi... go and live your life... but, before you go... there's something I think you should know..." I took a moment and closed my eyes to briefly remember my life as it was displayed before my eyes. I then opened my eyes again and looked at Hitomi and noticed her tears that were falling on me, so struggling, I reached up with a hand and softly wiped her tears away. "...Hitomi... I've noticed that you've always been there for me..." I stopped a moment, coughing a bit and struggling madly to keep myself alive for a while longer. "...you're been more than a friend to me... Hitomi..."

Releasing all hope, as it seemed, she then took hold of my hand and caressed it against her cheek, sighing my name out hopelessly from under her breath.

On the border of life and death, I started breathing harder--struggling even more to keep myself alive. "Well... I was hoping that I'd have the chance to repay you for all you've done for me... but it looks like that won't be happening anytime soon... I'm sorry... Hitomi..."

Now I realized at this point that I would have no other chance to tell her what I was feeling, and even though I wiped her tears away, more kept forming, so I looked up gently and gave her a weak smile--the best I was able to give at the moment. Struggling, I said, "Hitomi... one more thing I want you to know..."

Lighting up shortly after, the pendant around her neck was glowing brightly. Soon after the glow, she was engulfed in a beam of blue light, much like the ones I saw in my unconscious state. I also noted that some of that energy was seeping to me. I didn't give it much thought, but after it left--without me realizing that I was somehow fully healed--I continued, "I love you...."

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Yes, that was the last time I ever took even the smallest of things for granted. I realized from that point on that death lurks around everywhere and that life is too short to be wasting away. Love and life are two things that I've taken very seriously since then, realizing that if you have the chance to express yourself to another, you shouldn't let it pass you by, because you never know what things will happen that will keep you from ever fulfilling your dreams.

"I love you too" were the words from you that will forever remain etched in my heart...

   [1]: mailto:darientuxedomask@hotmail.com



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